To the middle aged woman who gestured angrily and yelled as we passed…

To the thirty-something man in the power suit who honked and forced his black SUV through our line…

To the person who tried to pass us and then moved his car into our lane to block our progress…

Perhaps you don’t know. Perhaps you didn’t recognize the hearse and the flapping flags on the first few cars. Perhaps you didn’t notice that we all had our lights on and our hazards flashing. Perhaps your mama never taught you to show respect to the dead by showing kindness to the grieving.

You couldn’t know, of course, that the woman inside the hearse was only twenty years old. You couldn’t know that she leaves behind parents and siblings and a young husband and a one-year-old baby girl. You couldn’t know anything about the person in that hearse or…

When change is needed but when prayer is reallly needed instead …..call for prayer today and until things are through changing around here…. ….again I am sorry ….yes to my children and grandchildren I am sorry for teaching you the correct way to do things…I am sorry to have to watch as others take the glory for your hard work while never lifting a finger ……I truely hate free loading want a be workers that always get things like more pay .more awards …more attention for work they never did nor do while people that do the job only get shit on …..seems it is time to develop a new type of t paper for the ones whom are really true shit….the new type of t paper would wipe them off the planet for good and would explode in flames when they were through wiping their behinds…..the photo today is about looking back …someting we all should do from time to time …looking back…. i raised you the way i was rasied …I FORGOT that it was about doing the right thing alway and never about awards,,money,,nor attention it was about being your best and getting the job done correct the firat time …. .I need lots of prayer to stay focused for next few months …..a lot of things are changing ……one can only hope and pray it is for the best even when it hurts……

yet another holiday is up on us …..we spend time cleaning and decorating graves of those that made the sacrifice for our freedoms……but really most are thinking more about the three or four day holiday that begins our summer ….instead of another holiday with flags and parades and cookouts ….we might just try living …
20 years of service ….two tours in Vietnam …two tours in Korea …four years in Germany and many moves from camp to camp …school to school,…
again the VA has put my husband in a state of depression….he gathered and copied and applied for the umpteenth time for points on his benefits and retirement….only to have it all moved again …. then receives a letter stating that they need more …more visits to update dr. reports and then a few trips to different part of state to see dr.s not related to last visit……more because they play a game with our service people they wait and wait and then when they look at application it is pass the date and they need all of it updated …mean while the veteran grows older and the application grows stale and around and around we go…every time they delay or move up he loses money and points …but then their game is to make people think they are taking care of our vets ……the only thing my vet has not applied for is pstd….when he came home from NAM…he was spit on called baby killer and could not wear his uniform down town for fear it would happen all over….he and others from that time did not have pstd or stress cards or an 800 # to call…they sucked it up and continued on …he flew agent orange ..he was coated in the chemical every time he flew it ….watched beautiful forest turn to death valley…. .today our children pay the price for agent orange …he followed orders and shot people down just because they looked like the enemy …. .he flew young men and women out of hell holes with half their bodies gone …he watched young children carrying grenade blow up in front of him .. to this day jumps with loud noises … nope it was called battle fatigue and one carried on and either drank it away or smoked it away or just went on with life best they could …..there seems to be a pstd for everyone today ……..every time the VA sends him a request ….he goes deeper into a depressed state…..but he get right back up and gathers their requested paper work and try one more time to get his benefits …. so on memorial day when you help place flags and clean graves of veterans long gone from this world ….. try to remember the one that still standing and fighting battles of not being able to cope…. .who have to fight new battles to make their loves lives secure …. sorry to rant but one grows old fast when dealing with this type of thing ……we are off now to kill more trees and burden the world with more paperwork ….in the end there will be one hell of a bonfire when all is done and we can destroy all the kept paper work …have a wonderful holiday ….we are going to try to…..when we grow old and tired…. sometimes the best thing to go for a ride and take in a view that makes you feel small….

April has arrived and mother nature has not given up ….been in Alaska for 30 plus years and she has never failed to scatter snow on the ground for us at Easter ….easier to find silly colored eggs in the white fluffy stuff I guess…. we had many beautiful warm days this last week …melting snow….longer days ….more sunlight….mosquitos…returning birds and other wildlife have return from their deep sleep of winter …..along with all the returning life there comes death of many things ..soon our darkness will be gone and the chase of the northern lights will be gone…no need for heavier clothing…we will change winter boots for mucking boots …….many will bury their love ones who passed during the many frozen months….many will travel to fish camps ….others will gather their fishing gear for deeper waters….other their hunting gear…..we will all live fast ….never sleeping til we fall out from over burn….gather every bit of the sun and daylight for our sun starved bodies……there few things that won’t change with the seasons…..sickness…worrying about love ones…. the living …the dying…loving and caring….. the next week will be a real test for some ….

like the aurora corona one can either learn to just look on or allow themselves to be drawn into the center and travel with the speed of light ……

We are beginning break up here in Alaska….we still have lots of snow and ice ,no spring green yet….so our green for saint paddy’s day comes from the heavens ….not sure why I continue to try to capture the lights ….it never measures up once I get to the computer to edit …but I am having fun …. if it matters I still do get excited when viewing from the back of camera…..the numbers on the data page and the info from many web cams screamed storm ….. everyone seems to capture a different storm

…most of their shots were true to raining auroras…mine were just lots of green with just tinges of pinks and reds and moving so fast ….made your head and tripod dance in high gear….. early in the storm I watched the skies

… read the many pages of aurora chasers ….I can never stop laughing at the ones who think because they are taking photos everyone should bow down to their work….and their made up rules

…..their many post of aurora watching etiquette……no joke there are 18 or more pages of these fine rules on the net …..my come back to theses fine rules and guide lines…. GET A LIFE…if your shots are that important find a new spot away from all the hot viewing spots…..

it has become a very sad world when one makes rules for others on how they should act when viewing nature …… no one should have to worry about lights on a vehicle because it cause light that will ruin your photo

…no one should have to worry about your camera and tripod in the dark … try putting glow in dark reflective tape on the bottom of you tripod …

why should I have to look for another spot to view auroras just because you are taking photos….and if you are in the dark bundled up in dark clothes you need to try putting reflective tape on your aurora shooting clothes …it is your life

…yes I am a driver of an auto but you have to be responsible as well……why do all your rules of etiquette tell the new viewer or aurora shooter what to do …..what about you …why do you feel that you are in charge of a public place …I hope every new viewer turns on their lights …holds their foot on the brake light…trip over your unmarked tripod …invades your public space…..and scared you when they almost run over you ….come on people it’s a big world and a bigger state and the last time I looked the sky over head did not belong to anyone

climbing down off soap box and going back outdoors to take more shots of the awesome world ….Still Standing MOM …I AM STILL STANDING

Today is our day to go to accountant and get the bad news of what we owe…..we know already we will owe …… owe big time…..but that is life ….we could have …or should I say we should have paid in so this would not be the fact ….but keeping warm and having a full belly and just plain life dictated differently…… so here we are …..the front clump of snow in the photo says it all we are here but it could have been different …

so off we go with our hand full of papers that took their own sweet time getting here …and our bellies churn ….. thoughts of all the things going on around us scream louder than the keys of the accountants computer ….

Somehow our paying in is supposed to be what the government thinks we all should do….. seems to me back some where in history we fought so we would not be so taxed ……we seem to tax everything any more that makes someone else feel threaten … or makes other feel good…. not sure there is anything not taxed of late ….soft drinks,cigs,gas,phone,net,booze, soon it will be the grill you grill on …..

the little windsock hanging in the tree has been hanging there since fourth July ……when we first hung it up it blew back and forth in the wind ……but some time during the deep dark winter it began to hang on to the tree with each wind it clung tighter ….sort of like us hard earning people of the USA …we are strong and we will play the game til it is time to unclench our fist and step forward in battle …. we go now to the tax collector and give it our all ….I MEAN OUR ALL…..

Bump bump ….hurry up …move on….what is the hold up?….what are we sitting here for …. can we cross now….why are stop signs always red…hey leave me be I was only shaking off some ice…..hey you there you have a five o’clock shadow ….. hey I like your new shape….is it just me are does the new snow make me look bigger…..hey anyone back there willing to step up front I am melting ……
Can you hear them ….maybe I have been locked up inside to long …things just look different in the sunlight…..
Still Standing MOM….I am still standing ….